


and keep this ocean dammed

by mayachain



Series: birthday!verse [61]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Established Relationship, Birthday, Epistolary, Ethical Dilemmas, Future Fic, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pandemics, Past Character Death, Statute of Secrecy (Harry Potter), Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29966469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/mayachain
Summary: March 10th, 2021
Relationships: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin
Series: birthday!verse [61]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/6020





	and keep this ocean dammed

** and keep this ocean dammed **

**March 10th, 2021**

Dear Sirius,

it’s been a few years since I really felt the need to sit down and write one of these. I would apologize, Padfoot, but I know that ~~birthday or not~~ you wished I’d never in my life sat down and penned a single letter motivated by grief.

We always knew there were good and bad families everywhere. You knew it, Lily knew it, James knew it. To my everlasting shame, Harry found out. 

Every year there are students we the staff of Hogwarts quietly agree to keep an eye on. They pop up in every house, in every year, among purebloods, mixed families, muggle-borns. We know that.

I hate fighting with Minerva. My respect for her knows few bounds and so I abhor it, but more than two decades after his death she is sometimes far less removed from Albus’ doctrine than she believes.

Not a single new student has come forward and said that they can’t go home during the upcoming holidays. 

It’s a good sign. It’s a wonderful sign, Minerva says. 

It is wonderful. I want to believe it.

Are we doing enough to ensure the kids know they can speak up?

~~The conservatives grumble that this is why we have the Statute of Secrecy in the first place.~~ ~~Sometimes I wish we could just send the house-elves to at least spy in the guardians~~

Can we be sure that when the kids go home, there will be none among them whose families will blame them and their magic? Can I be sure that the second-year Hufflepuff who lost a total of four relatives won’t be held accountable for generations of wizard experts’ failure?

In Ravenclaw there is a girl whose family’s loss, by all accounts, has only brought them all closer together. It’s a good sign. It’s a wonderful sign, Minerva says. Too bold a statement of our support for students who might need it unfairly casts family such as theirs in a negative light, Minerva says. 

We the Hogwarts staff are vigilant. I want to believe that we would see the signs. I want to believe this, Sirius, but how can I afford to? Where would you have been if James had not come though for you? How could I look Harry – how could I look ~~Severus and~~ Teddy in the eye and admit that I failed to shelter a child who needed it?

.


End file.
